OCZ VX Revisited: DDR Updates on DFI nForce4
by Wesley Fink on March 30, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Test Results: OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and RTCW had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.| OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (DDR400) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank | |||||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered | Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 12x200 | 400DDR | 2-2-2-6 2.6V 1T |
549.5 | INT 2850 FLT 3045 |
INT 6066 FLT 6034 |
80 | 114.9 |
| 11x218 | 436DDR | 2-3-2-6 2.8V 1T |
546.3 | INT 2893 FLT 3065 |
INT 6452 FLT 6385 |
81 | 114.3 |
| 10x240 | 480DDR | 2.5-3-3-6 2.8V 1T |
550.2 | INT 3016 FLT 3231 |
INT 6709 FLT 6631 |
80 | 115.1 |
| 9x267 | 533DDR | 2.5-4-3-6 2.9V 1T |
554.6 | INT 3101 FLT 3331 |
INT 7026 FLT 6940 |
80 | 116.0 |
| 9x318 (2.86 GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance | 2.5-4-3-7 2.9V 1T |
649.0 | INT 3562 FLT 3752 |
INT 7828 FLT 7739 |
72 | 136.4 |
The OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 was the only memory to achieve its best performance at a 9 ratio - reaching DDR636 in our DFI test bed. This was achieved at the more desirable 1T Command Rate. This level of performance is outstanding, but it is definitely worth noting that OCZ TCCD at DDR636 2.5-4-3-7 performance is roughly equivalent to OCZ VX Gold at 10x267 2-2-2-6. This is particularly interesting, since the CPU speed at 318x9 is 2.86GHz compared to 2.67GHz at 267x10.
OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev.2 performs very well as the representative of fast TCCD memory. We checked results with G. Skill TCCD and achieved close to the same performance as OCZ with stable performance at DDR630 (315). This represents the kinds of normal variations that you will find in top-performing memory at the highest performance levels.
As impressive as DDR636 sounds, fast memory timings and a fast memory chip can offset both a higher memory speed and a slightly higher CPU speed. The best TCCD can perform just as well as VX, but it required DDR636 and a 119 MHz faster speed to match OCZ VX at 2-2-2-6 timings.
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NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the great review & follow-up. I purchased 2GB of this stuff (based off your initial review), well 1GB, but the Egg rocks so hard they sent me 1GB free :) I'm having issues breaking 250FSB.Wesley, I was wondering what DRAM settings & Genie BIOS settings you are using in this comparison. I've tried a bunch of settings posted at DFI Street & Bleeding Edge, but to no avail. I'm also curious as to whether active cooling is being used on the memory. Anything past 3.2V on my OCZ VX RAM gives me errors.
NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#20, he wasn't talking specifically about this article.And he makes a point. AnandTech is lacking reviews for AMD PCI-E boards, so far there's only a 4-boards SLI roundup, an article for the DFI boards and reviews of pre-production Gigabyte boards. That's too little for a site like AnandTech and I have to say I'm a little disapointed.
Scott66 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#10 The reason no other boards are reviewed in the article, as it plainly states, is they don't have enough memory voltage. The only way they can be used is with the OCZ voltage adapter. This would not be a comparable test though.L3p3rM355i4h - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
TCCD isn't the holy grail of RAM anymore. Too bad you need a DDR booster or a DFI mobo to take advangtage though.Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the reply guys, i'll check it out now :PSpacecomber - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
When you run MemTest86, you'll notice in the upper left part of the screen that it gives you some information, including memory bandwidth numbers for the cache and the system memory. The system memory number is what AnandTech is looking at to determine if certain memory timing settings are increasing the memory bandwidth or not.Space
bigtoe36 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#15 have a look at www.memtest86.org, download either the floppy version or thr cd ISO file and create the memtest disk. Set to boot from it.once running memtest you can press C then 9 for the advanced options, this will allow you to set memory timings from within memtest its self without the need to reboot.
you can also press c 9 then 5 for the advanced A64 memory options and tweak your ram even further.
All this is done before you load the OS so your HDD will not be at risk of data corruption.
Also the latest builds of the DFI bios files have memtest85 incorperated into them in genie bios so you don't have to compile a disk at all, just set enabled and the pc will boot to memtest on its own.
Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Sorry to be a n00b but are you saying that the memtest86+ program that fits on a floppy can actually tell me the best settings for my setup? If so how? As soon as i boot the computer and run it it just goes through all those 8 tests it does...Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Ozzimark -We have been running Everest in our memory tests to start to build a database. We just weren't ready to introduce a new bench in this update.
I did notice a very interesting trend in Everest while testing these memories. The Read values were pretty close at the same speed, but VX had a significantly higher Write score than any other memory tested here. At DDR400 the write scores for TCCD were in the 2100 MB/s range where VX write was 2661. Ballistix scores were closer to VX than TCCD.